Size reduction of metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET), including reduction of the gate length and gate oxide thickness, has enabled the continued improvement in speed performance, density, and cost per unit function of integrated circuits over the past few decades.
To enhance transistor performance further, strain may be introduced in the transistor channel for improving carrier mobilities. Therefore, strain-induced mobility enhancement is another way to improve transistor performance in addition to device scaling. There are several existing approaches of introducing strain in the transistor channel region.
In one conventional approach, as described in a paper by J. Welser et al., published at the December 1992 International Electron Devices Meeting held in San Francisco, Calif., pp. 1000–1002 and incorporated herein by reference, a relaxed silicon germanium (SiGe) buffer layer is provided beneath the channel region. FIG. 1a shows such an approach. Referring to FIG. 1a, a semiconductor device 100 includes a strained silicon layer 110 formed over and abutting a relaxed SiGe layer 112, which is formed over and abutting a graded SiGe buffer layer 114. The graded SiGe buffer layer 114 is formed over and abutting a silicon substrate 116.
The relaxed SiGe layer 112 has a larger lattice constant compared to relaxed Si, and the thin layer of epitaxial Si 110 grown on the relaxed SiGe 112 will have its lattice stretched in the lateral direction, i.e., it will be under biaxial tensile strain. This result is illustrated in FIGS. 1b and 1c. Therefore, a transistor 118 formed on the epitaxial strained silicon layer 110 will have a channel region 120 that is under biaxial tensile strain. In this approach, the relaxed SiGe buffer layer 112 can be thought of as a stressor that introduces strain in the channel region 120. The stressor, in this case, is placed below the transistor channel region 120.
Significant mobility enhancement has been reported for both electrons and holes in bulk transistors using a silicon channel under biaxial tensile strain. In the abovementioned approach, the epitaxial silicon layer is strained before the formation of the transistor. But there are concerns about the strain relaxation upon subsequent CMOS processing where high temperatures are used. In addition, this approach is very expensive since a SiGe buffer layer with thickness in the order of micrometers has to be grown. Numerous dislocations in the relaxed SiGe buffer layer exist and some of these dislocations propagate to the strained silicon layer, resulting in a substrate with high defect density. Thus, this approach has limitations that are related to cost and fundamental material properties.
In another approach, strain in the channel is introduced after the transistor is formed. In this approach, a high stress film 132 is formed over a completed transistor structure 130 formed in a silicon substrate 136, as shown in FIG. 2. The high stress film or stressor 132 exerts significant influence on the channel 134, modifying the silicon lattice spacing in the channel region, and thus introducing strain in the channel region. In this case, the stressor 132 is placed above the completed transistor structure. This scheme is described in detail in a paper by A. Shimizu et al., entitled “Local mechanical stress control (LMC): a new technique for CMOS performance enhancement,” published in pp. 433–436 of the Digest of Technical Papers of the 2001 International Electron Device Meeting, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The strain contributed by the high stress film is believed to be uniaxial in nature with a direction parallel to the source-to-drain direction. However, uniaxial tensile strain degrades the hole mobility while uniaxial compressive strain degrades the electron mobility. Ion implantation of germanium can be used to selectively relax the strain so that the hole or electron mobility is not degraded, but this is difficult to implement due to the close proximity of the n and p-channel transistors.
On the other hand, strain is known to be also introduced in the channel region by the formation of the isolation structure, such as the shallow trench isolation structure. While there is much prior art related to the formation and improvement of the isolation structure, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,046,487, 5,763,315, and 5,447,884, this prior art has not addressed the separate optimization of strain for the n-channel and p-channel transistors. That is, the same isolation structure is used for all transistors, whether n-channel or p-channel transistors.
For example, FIG. 3a shows a transistor 140 formed in an active region isolated by shallow trench isolation (STI) regions 142. The STI regions 142 exert compressive stress on the active region, and the channel region 144 of the transistor 140 is therefore under compressive stress. While compressive stress in the channel region 144 improves the mobility of holes, it degrades the mobility of electrons. Therefore, the STI of FIG. 3a improves the performance of p-channel transistors while degrading the performance of n-channel transistors.
In FIG. 3b, another prior art trench isolation structure is shown where a nitride liner 146 is formed over an oxide liner 148. The nitride liner 146 acts as an oxidation mask, preventing further oxidation of the trench sidewalls. The nitride liner 146 minimizes confined volume expansion when the isolation trench is filled with oxide 150 and, therefore, reduces any compressive stress in the surrounding active region.